Mike Duffy

Michael Dennis Duffy (born May 27, 1946) is a former Canadian senator and former Canadian television journalist.

In 1965, he served as news director at CKDH-FM in Amherst, Nova Scotia before heading to CFCF in Montreal as a lineup and assignment editor in 1969, and in 1971, he joined CFRA radio in Ottawa as a political reporter.

Duffy joined CBC radio's Parliament Hill bureau in 1974, and became a reporter for the flagship television newscast The National in 1977.

Duffy became the lead CBC television reporter on Parliament Hill and covered the elections and most of the important federal stories of the Trudeau, Clark and Mulroney governments.

Duffy is primarily known for his work as an Ottawa journalist, but he has been a foreign correspondent.

He covered the fall of South Vietnam in April 1975 and was one of the last journalists to leave before the arrival of North Vietnamese troops and Viet Cong insurgents.

In 1986, he won an ACTRA Award for live television reporting, for his coverage of the 1985 Turkish embassy attack in Ottawa by the Armenian Revolutionary Army.

In 1988, Duffy joined Baton Broadcasting as the first host of its Sunday morning news program Sunday Edition based in Ottawa.

Duffy was also a popular speaker at conferences, annual meetings and other events across Canada and, writer Stevie Cameron noted in her 1990 book Ottawa Inside Out, was probably the most-recognized journalist on Parliament Hill.

In 1994, Duffy was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Duffy has received honorary degrees from the University of Prince Edward Island, as well as Wilfrid Laurier University and from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York.

He has been a visiting fellow at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, and has been twice nominated for the "best in the business" award by the Washington Journalism Review.

When that series ended in 1999, Duffy moved to his role as a show host and interviewer with CTV Newsnet (now the CTV News Channel).

Long known as an "Ottawa insider", he was able to get many elected officials to appear on his programs.

Duffy hosted two programs on CTV Newsnet, Countdown with Mike Duffy and Mike Duffy Live, which was broadcast in the supper hour news slot.

In 2002, he was awarded the Golden Jubilee Medal by the Governor General of Canada on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.

Prior to his appointment to the upper house in 2008, he was the Ottawa editor for CTV News Channel.

Upon turning 75 on May 27, 2021, Duffy retired from the senate due to mandatory retirement rules.

Mike Duffy was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island to Lillian and Wilfrid Duffy.

He is a grandson of Charles Gavan Duffy, a PEI Liberal MLA and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island.

Duffy studied humanities at St. Dunstan's College.

Duffy became a ham radio operator at the age of 16 and began his career as a teen disc jockey at CFCY-TV.

He moved to print journalism with The Guardian in Charlottetown.

On December 22, 2008, Duffy was named a Prince Edward Island representative to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, sitting as a Conservative.

He subsequently retired as a TV journalist at the end of 2008.

On May 27, 2009, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled Duffy violated Canadian broadcasting codes during the 2008 Canadian federal election.

It concluded that Duffy's decision to re-broadcast an earlier ATV Halifax broadcast of ‘false starts’ of an interview with then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion “was not fair, balanced, or even handed.” The Panel also concluded that, during the same broadcast, Duffy “significantly misrepresented the view of one of the three members of his Panel...Liberal MP Geoff Regan.” The panel thus concluded “that the consistent misrepresentation by host Mike Duffy of the MP’s point of view constituted an unfair and improper presentation of opinion or comment contrary to clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics."

He was introduced to the Senate on 26 January 2009 immediately prior to the Speech from the Throne.

In 2012, Duffy was accused by the media and Senate of improperly claiming primary residency outside of Ottawa in order to claim living expenses for time working in Ottawa.

Three other senators, with different fact cases, were also accused of filing false expenses.

On February 28, 2013, the Senate Committee on the Internal Economy announced that Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Mac Harb, and Patrick Brazeau would be subject to a forensic audit to determine appropriateness of their expense claims.

After several weeks of negative publicity, Duffy, despite believing he was entitled to claim the PEI residence, volunteered to pay back the expenses he had claimed for his Ottawa residence.

Prime Minister Harper's Chief of Staff, Nigel Wright wrote a personal cheque to Duffy for $90,172 to cover past residency expenses claimed as part of an agreement Duffy made with the Prime Minister's Office.

Duffy then repaid the Government of Canada $90,172 in March 2013.

Duffy resigned from the Conservative caucus on May 16, 2013, and became an independent senator.

On November 5, 2013 the Senate voted to suspend Duffy and two other senators.

On July 17, 2014, Duffy was charged by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with 31 offences.

However, in his trial decision exonerating Duffy in 2016, Ontario Superior Court Judge Charles Vaillancourt said Duffy had not falsely claimed living expenses.

The judge said Duffy had no choice in the matter, as he had been appointed to represent Prince Edward Island in the Senate.

Duffy was acquitted of all charges on April 21, 2016.